Andy Stankiewicz | |
|---|---|
 Stankiewicz speaks to hisGCU team in 2022 | |
| Born | Andrew Neal Stankiewicz (1964-08-10)August 10, 1964 (age 60) Inglewood, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Pepperdine University |
Baseball player Baseball career | |
| Infielder | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 11, 1992, for the New York Yankees | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 23, 1998, for the Arizona Diamondbacks | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .241 |
| Home runs | 4 |
| Runs batted in | 59 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Coaching career | |
| Current position | |
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | USC |
| Conference | Big Ten |
| Record | 74–52–1 (.587) |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 2004–2005 | Staten Island Yankees |
| 2006–2009 | Arizona State (AC) |
| 2012–2022 | Grand Canyon |
| 2023–present | USC |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 415–291–3 (.587) |
| Tournaments | NCAA: 0–4–0 (.000) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| |
| Awards | |
| |
Andrew Neal Stankiewicz (born August 10, 1964) is an American baseball player who currently serves as thehead coach of theUSC Trojans baseball team in Los Angeles. He also played professionally inMajor League Baseball as a middle-infielder.
Stankiewicz had a seven-year MLB playing career spanning four clubs and 429 appearances. He was drafted by theNew York Yankees in the1986 draft and went on to make his MLB debut with the club in 1992. He also played for theHouston Astros andMontreal Expos before closing out his career with theArizona Diamondbacks in 1998.[1]
Following his playing career, Stankiewicz worked in the Yankees organization including serving as the manager of theStaten Island Yankees in 2003 and 2005, a roving infield instructor in 2004,[2] and as ascout in 2006.[3] He led Staten Island, the Yankees' Class A affiliate, to the 2005NY-Penn League Championship.[citation needed]
He got his first taste of college coaching with a three-year stint as an assistant coach atArizona State underPat Murphy,[4] making a pair ofCollege World Series appearances in 2007 and 2009.[5]
Stankiewicz also served as theminor league field coordinator for theSeattle Mariners from 2009 to 2012[6] before taking the head coaching job at Grand Canyon.[7]
In an 11-year stint as the head coach atGrand Canyon, he inherited anNCAA Division II program and guided it through a transition toDivision I where it stood as one of the nation's topmid-major programs[8] with fiveWestern Athletic Conference regular-season championships[9] and multiple appearances in thenation's top-25 rankings.[10]
Stankiewicz went toSt. Paul High School inSanta Fe Springs, California.[11] He is an alumnus ofPepperdine University, where he was a standout for the Waves baseball program and graduated in 1986 with a degree in sociology. He ranks in the top 10 in several Pepperdine career batting categories, and is third on the school's all-time list in stolen bases (101).[12]
Stankiewicz was an all-league player and his team's most valuable player in football, basketball and baseball at St. Paul High School. He was "regarded as 'one of the best athletes in the history of the school.' His credentials were impressive, not in one sport, but three."[13]
He hit .438 and was the Swordsmen's everyday shortstop as a senior in 1982.[13]
Stankiewicz also played football where he was aLos Angeles Times First Team All-Southeastwide receiver as a senior in 1981, catching 53 passes and returning four kicks for touchdowns.[14] His coach classified him as "the fastest player in the league."[15] He played in the state's Shrine All-Star Football classic at theRose Bowl in July 1982.[16] Stankiewicz received football interest fromNorthern Arizona.[13]
In July 1982, Stankiewicz received a full baseball scholarship toPepperdine. He originally held partial scholarship offers from Pepperdine andUC Irvine but signed with the Waves when head coachDave Gorrie upped his offer to a full scholarship.[13]
Stankiewicz appeared in 32 games as a freshman in 1983, hitting .208 with five RBIs. He became an everyday starter as a sophomore in 1984, playing all but two games in his final three seasons combined. His loudest offensive numbers came as a sophomore, hitting .306 with a team-leading 11 home runs, a team-best 63 runs scored and 74 hits. He rounded out his career hitting .278 as a junior and .288 as a senior. For his career, he played in 221 games, recorded 215 hits, 20 home runs, 172 runs scored, 96 RBIs and a .285 batting average.[17]
Stankiewicz wore No. 3 as a Wave and earned second-team all-conference honors as a sophomore and a senior.[17]
The Waves qualified for theNCAA tournament in his junior and senior seasons. In the1985 Stanford Regional, Pepperdine lost its opener toNebraska before bouncing back to win three straight games againstOregon State, Nebraska andStanford. The Waves fell in the winner-take-all regional championship to Stanford. In the1986 Austin Regional, Pepperdine won games againstTexas–Pan American andSouthern Illinois before losing toArizona. The Waves staved off elimination by beating hostTexas but fell again to Arizona. Stankiewicz finished 6–4 in the NCAA tournament in his Waves career.[17]
Stankiewicz remains in Pepperdine's career top 10 for at bats with 755, runs with 172, walks drawn with 121, stolen bases with 101 and stolen-base percentage at .828.[17]
While at Pepperdine, Stankiewicz played alongside other future MLB players inPaul Faries,Mike Fetters,Matt Howard,Chad Kreuter andDoug Simons as well as current Pepperdine head coachRick Hirtensteiner.
Alongside his brother, Alan, Stankiewicz played collegiate summer ball in 1985 for theNorth Pole Nicks under legendary coachMike Gillespie.[18] Both Andy and Alan earnedNational Baseball Congress All-American honors.[19]
Stankiewicz was selected in threeMLB drafts.
In 11 seasons in the minor leagues, he played primarily shortstop and second base. In 1987 he hit .307 at Ft. Lauderdale, and in 1989 he stole 41 bases in 498 at bats at Albany.
Stankiewicz played for four different ballclubs during his career: theNew York Yankees (1992–1993),Houston Astros (1994–1995),Montreal Expos (1996–1997), andArizona Diamondbacks (1998).
He made his Major League Baseball debut on April 11, 1992, and played his final game on September 23, 1998.
He was a 27-year-old rookie in 1992, when he hit .268 for the Yankees, and .304 with runners in scoring position, and set what turned out to be career highs in at bats (400), runs (52), home runs (2), RBIs (25), and stolen bases (9).
Following his playing career, he managed theStaten Island Yankees, New York's single-A (short season) affiliate, for two seasons (2004–2005), which culminated with aNew York–Penn League title in 2005. In 2006, he worked as ascout for the New York Yankees.[20] From 2006 to 2009 he was an assistant baseball coach atArizona State University. Under his guidance, ASU led the nation infielding percentage in 2007, and he coached 29 players who were drafted, including three first rounders.
On April 25, 2011, Stankiewicz became the head coach atGrand Canyon University.[21]
In his first season, he guided the Antelopes to a 27–23 overall record as the squad finished eighth in the final West Region poll. Stankiewicz also had been selected as an assistant coach for USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team during the summer of 2012. The squad traveled to Cuba and The Netherlands to compete in Honkbal-Haarlem Baseball Week, where they won the bronze medal. In just his second season at Grand Canyon, Stankiewicz had the program winning 40 games and advancing to theNCAA Division II Baseball Championship.
Stankiewicz continued to lead the Lopes as they transitioned fromDivision II toDivision I beginning in2014. In 2015, under his direction, Grand Canyon won the 2015 regular season WAC title.[22]
Stankiewicz quickly built Grand Canyon into one of the WAC's top two programs, winning regular-season championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018. In 2017 and 2018, the Lopes did not lose a WAC series and posted 19–5 and 20–4 records.
He continued the program's upward trajectory into the 2020s, winning additional WAC regular-season championships in 2021 and 2022. Stankiewicz took the program to its firstNCAA Division I baseball tournament in 2021 with aWAC baseball tournament championship.[23] In 2022, the program made its debut in the D1Baseball.com top-25 poll for the first time and remained for three weeks through the end of the regular season. The Lopes earned an at-large bid into the2022 NCAA Division I baseball tournament as one of the last four teams in.[24]
Stankiewicz was named head baseball coach at theUniversity of Southern California on July 3, 2022.[25][26]
His first season was considered a surprising success,[27][28] winning 34 games and posting a 26–6 record at home. The Trojans finished fourth in the Pac-12 standings by winning seven of their 10 conference series but were left out of theNCAA tournament[29] despite being projected as safely in by many publications.[30][31]
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Canyon Antelopes(Pacific West Conference)(2012–2013) | |||||||||
| 2012 | Grand Canyon | 27–23 | 23–17 | 3rd | |||||
| 2013 | Grand Canyon | 40–19 | 26–10 | 2nd | |||||
| Grand Canyon: | 49–27 | ||||||||
| Grand Canyon Antelopes(Western Athletic Conference)(2014–2022) | |||||||||
| 2014 | Grand Canyon | 30–23 | 19–8 | 2nd | ineligible | ||||
| 2015 | Grand Canyon | 32–22 | 19–7 | 2nd | ineligible | ||||
| 2016 | Grand Canyon | 25–28–1 | 13–14 | 5th | ineligible | ||||
| 2017 | Grand Canyon | 29–25 | 20–4 | 1st | ineligible | ||||
| 2018 | Grand Canyon | 33–24 | 19–5 | 1st | WAC tournament | ||||
| 2019 | Grand Canyon | 36–24 | 18–9 | T-4th | WAC tournament | ||||
| 2020 | Grand Canyon | 9–9 | 0–0 | Season canceled due toCOVID-19 | |||||
| 2021 | Grand Canyon | 39–21–1 | 29–7 | T-1st | NCAA Regional | ||||
| 2022 | Grand Canyon | 41–21 | 25–5 | 1st(West) | NCAA Regional | ||||
| Grand Canyon: | 341–239–2 | 162–59 | |||||||
| USC Trojans(Pac-12 Conference)(2023–2024) | |||||||||
| 2023 | USC | 34–23-1 | 17–13 | 4th | Pac-12 Tournament | ||||
| 2024 | USC | 31–28 | 17–12 | 4th | Pac-12 Tournament | ||||
| USC: | 65–51–1 (.560) | 34–25–0 (.576) | |||||||
| USC Trojans(Big Ten Conference)(2025–present) | |||||||||
| 2025 | USC | 9–1 | 0–0 | ||||||
| USC: | 74–52–1 (.587) | 34–25–0 (.576) | |||||||
| Total: | 415–291–3 (.587) | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||
Stankiewicz married his wife Mari Ana in 1992. The couple has four children: Drew, Marisa, Dane and Mia. Drew played baseball atArizona State and was drafted in the 11th round of the2014 MLB Draft by thePhiladelphia Phillies.[45] Marisa played softball atArizona State, Dane played baseball for Andy atGrand Canyon, and Mia played softball atSouth Mountain Community College andCSUN.[46][47]
He grew up inInglewood, California, the son of Al and Hope Stankiewicz. He has an older brother, Alan, and a younger sister, Andrea.[13]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)